A profound new way to understand health

Think of health in terms of the entire life cycle. Experiences from the prenatal period through adolescence have far-reaching impact, affecting well-being throughout an individual’s life. Early risk exposures can result in a cascade of poor health outcomes, some of which will not manifest for decades. Early exposure to positive and protective factors, however, can set a child on a path toward a healthy and successful life–a life with a substantially lower risk for developing chronic disease.

Emerging research from fields as diverse as medicine, psychology, sociology and economics is shedding light on how health develops over the life course. Viewing health through a life course lens highlights the potential of maternal and child health programs to improve outcomes for the entire U.S. population and reduce burgeoning health care costs.

Join LCRN

LCRN provides an innovative infrastructure for capturing and disseminating knowledge, catalyzing basic, theoretical,
applied and translational life course health development research, and increasing the funding available to support such work.

Sign up to receive the LCRN newsletter:

Support Us

LCRN is actively seeking additional funding to develop new and innovative transdisciplinary research and activities.
If you would like to contribute, please contact Ericka Tullis, Project Manager, at ETullis@mednet.ucla.edu.

The Maternal and Child Health Life Course Research Network (LCRN) is a virtual collaborative network of researchers, service providers and thought leaders committed to improving health and reducing disease by advancing life course health development research.

LCRN brings together diverse expertise and perspectives to examine the origins and development of health, and to inform meaningful and evidence-based changes in practice, systems and policies affecting children and families.

Latest Research by LCRN Members

Issue Brief – Why Becoming a Good Parent Begins in Infancy: How Relationship Skills Are Developed throughout the Life Courseposted January 04, 2018Read full article

Research Brief: The Emerging Theoretical Framework of Life Course Health Developmentposted December 14, 2017Read full article

Life Course Research Agenda (LCRA), Version 1.0posted December 14, 2017Read full article

Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) in Life Course Health Development Researchposted December 14, 2017Read full article

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to Conduct Life Course Health Development Analysisposted December 14, 2017Read full article

Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) to Conduct Life Course Analysesposted December 14, 2017Read full article